Anyhow I am a student, and my primary hobby is music, though I have little hope of being a professional. I strive for excellence, though, and I study with a fine piano teacher. Right now, as you can see in my sig, my primary projects are the Rachmaninoff Sérérade Op. 3 no. 5 and Chopin's Op. 44 Polonaise. The Polonaise is my "fun" project; I just started it to see if I could handle it at all, and much to my surprise I have made great progress with it. Very difficult, but the parts I have down are fun to play. But it's on the back burner right now because I have a timetable on the Rachmaninoff.

Since this site focuses a lot on recordings, I'll just say that I don't have any right now, but I will this fall and I'll think about uploading. I'll be playing a Chopin nocturne (Op. 15-1) for an electronic recital at PW, and I'll plan to record a few other pieces at the same time.

And, in case you haven't guessed it by now , I'm a Horowitz fanatic. I do enjoy other pianists, but for some intangible reason I am drawn to Horowitz more than any other.

Since this site focuses a lot on recordings, I'll just say that I don't have any right now, but I will this fall and I'll think about uploading. I'll be playing a Chopin nocturne (Op. 15-1) for an electronic recital at PW, and I'll plan to record a few other pieces at the same time.

Oh, well, by uploading that nocturne you would complete the whole set on PS, since 15/1 is the one still missing if I'm not wrong. By the way, I have been trying to convince myself to study and record it. It would be my first Chopin recording on PS.

_________________"A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking" - Anonymous

I second the welcome to you, Horowitzian. Not long ago I watch the video of Horowitz in Moscow, and last summer attended a talk by his personal piano tuner. He's a cute little old man with some highly entertaining stories of his days together with Horowitz.

alf wrote:

I have been trying to convince myself to study and record it. It would be my first Chopin recording on PS.

Really? No Chopin, yet? Well then yes - you should record it, Alfonso. I haven't thought about or even looked at that Nocturne for a long time. I do like it, though, and would love to hear your velvety fingers play it. Does that convince you?

_________________"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." ~ Frederic Chopin

Thanks, guys! There's no Nocturne Op. 15-1 yet? I'll be happy to complete the selection, but as I said it'll be a while. I haven't even started the nocturne yet. I'm going to this spring, though.

Pianolady, do you have Mr. Mohr's book, My Life With the Great Pianists? It has a lot of interesting stories about his work with Horwitz, Cliburn, Rubinstein, and Gilels; as well as his own personal life story. And that Moscow recital is simply incredible! I've never been to any of Mr. Mohr's talks, but I've heard about them.

Have you seen this? It's in the same vein as your sig, no pun intended!

Quote:

Musicale

C, E-flat and G go into a bar. The bartender says, "I'm sorry, but wedon't serve minors." So E-flat leaves, and C and G have an open fifthbetween them. After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished, and G is outflat. F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharpenough.

D comes in and heads for the bathroom saying, "Excuse me. I'll just be asecond." Then A comes in, but the bartender is not convinced that thisrelative of C is not a minor. Then the bartender notices B-flat hiding atthe end of the bar and says, "Get out! You're the seventh minor I'vefound in this bar tonight."

E-Flat comes back the next night in a three-piece suit with nicely shinedshoes. The bartender says, "You're looking sharp tonight. Come on in, thiscould be a major development." Sure enough, E-flat soon takes off his suitand everything else, and is au natural.

Eventually, C sobers up and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. Cis brought to trial, found guilty of contributing to the diminution of aminor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscalecorrectional facility. On appeal, however, C is found innocent of anywrongdoing, even accidental. The judge rules that all contrary motions arebassless.

Anyway, Monica and Terez, I'll record that Nocturne sooner or later, but want a row of serious remarks from you then! Julius, I had a traumatic childhood, and it was neither Chopin's nor bogeyman's fault. It was HANON's fault!

_________________"A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking" - Anonymous

Anyway, Monica and Terez, I'll record that Nocturne sooner or later, but want a row of serious remarks from you then! Julius, I had a traumatic childhood, and it was neither Chopin's nor bogeyman's fault. It was HANON's fault!

I actually rather like Hanon. but he isn't everything that's for certain. But YMMV.

Well, I wouldn't be as technically proficient as I am without Hanon. It is rather repetitive, so I generally don't do more than, say, 10 of them in one day before moving on to the "real music". What was your bad experience with Hanon? I hope it wasn't an injury from overdoing it.

Pianolady, do you have Mr. Mohr's book, My Life With the Great Pianists? It has a lot of interesting stories about his work with Horwitz, Cliburn, Rubinstein, and Gilels; as well as his own personal life story. And that Moscow recital is simply incredible! I've never been to any of Mr. Mohr's talks, but I've heard about them.

Yes, I do have that book. I bought it from him when I went to his talk. He seems to come around my home town often. But of course that's because of the big Steinway dealer located here.

_________________"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." ~ Frederic Chopin

Pianolady, do you have Mr. Mohr's book, My Life With the Great Pianists? It has a lot of interesting stories about his work with Horwitz, Cliburn, Rubinstein, and Gilels; as well as his own personal life story. And that Moscow recital is simply incredible! I've never been to any of Mr. Mohr's talks, but I've heard about them.

Yes, I do have that book. I bought it from him when I went to his talk. He seems to come around my home town often. But of course that's because of the big Steinway dealer located here.

It's one of my favorite books I've ever bought. If he ever comes around here, I'm going to get him to sign it. Has he ever come around with Horowitz's piano? I've sworn to myself that I will play that piano at least once.

Look at what kind of mechanism you develop practicing what is pompously called "The virtuoso pianist", then consider the endless piano literature and what it asks for (even in the easiest pieces). "Hanon" is little more than 5-finger mindless exercises in parallel motion. Pretty useless under every respect.

Horowitzian wrote:

It is rather repetitive, so I generally don't do more than, say, 10 of them in one day before moving on to the "real music". What was your bad experience with Hanon? I hope it wasn't an injury from overdoing it.

No injuries in my case, luckly I've never had problems of that kind. On the other hand, I've never overdone piano practice so I don't feel I'm especially smart about it.

_________________"A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking" - Anonymous

Look at what kind of mechanism you develop practicing what is pompously called "The virtuoso pianist", then consider the endless piano literature and what it asks for (even in the easiest pieces). "Hanon" is little more than 5-finger mindless exercises in parallel motion. Pretty useless under every respect.

Horowitzian wrote:

It is rather repetitive, so I generally don't do more than, say, 10 of them in one day before moving on to the "real music". What was your bad experience with Hanon? I hope it wasn't an injury from overdoing it.

No injuries in my case, luckly I've never had problems of that kind. On the other hand, I've never overdone piano practice so I don't feel I'm especially smart about it.

I'm glad to hear you didn't have any injuries.

Since I was a rather late beginner, Hanon combined with scales, arpeggios, and basic harmony helped me overcome those missed years of early training. Even so, like I said, YMMV.

Yah, Chopin always said that the manner of playing them was a Polish thing (imagine that).

Has anyone heard Zimerman play mazurkas? I've only seen him play the bigger stuff, but speaking of the bigger stuff, he's of course done the concertos with the PFO, and the 3rd movement of the F minor concerto is a bit mazurkish in places, and he seems to have experimented with that Polish way of interpreting them in that movement.

Yah, Chopin always said that the manner of playing them was a Polish thing (imagine that).

Has anyone heard Zimerman play mazurkas? I've only seen him play the bigger stuff, but speaking of the bigger stuff, he's of course done the concertos with the PFO, and the 3rd movement of the F minor concerto is a bit mazurkish in places, and he seems to have experimented with that Polish way of interpreting them in that movement.

Yes, there's an old DG disc with Op. 24 Nos.1-2-4 (and the video from the 1975 Chopin Competition Monica's already indicated). If you want to listen to some really extraordinary interpretations of them go to YT and look for Ignaz Friedman. His Mazurkas are one of a kind and in my opinion he gives a possible account of that famous "Polish" thing you mentioned.

_________________"A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking" - Anonymous

He could be Chopin, himself! (except I don't like some of the facial expressions)

He seems to mostly use a straight 3 tempo throughout that one. In the 3rd movement of the f minor concerto, he doesn't.

Alfie wrote:

If you want to listen to some really extraordinary interpretations of them go to YT and look for Ignaz Friedman. His Mazurkas are one of a kind and in my opinion he gives a possible account of that famous "Polish" thing you mentioned.

I'm listening to one of them now (63/3), but it seems to be straight 3 also.

Both interpretations are nice, but I still think Zimerman's interpretation of the 3rd movement of the f minor concerto is the only one that deviates from a strict meter. I can't get the Meyerbeer scenario out of my head...but I'm definitely willing to accept that the meter deviation could have been a lot subtler than the Meyerbeer anecdote implies (that would certainly explain why Chopin was originally so frustrated with Meyerbeer's insistence that Chopin played his mazurkas in 4).

If you want to listen to some really extraordinary interpretations of them go to YT and look for Ignaz Friedman. His Mazurkas are one of a kind and in my opinion he gives a possible account of that famous "Polish" thing you mentioned.

I'm listening to one of them now (63/3), but it seems to be straight 3 also.

If you want to listen to some really extraordinary interpretations of them go to YT and look for Ignaz Friedman. His Mazurkas are one of a kind and in my opinion he gives a possible account of that famous "Polish" thing you mentioned.

I'm listening to one of them now (63/3), but it seems to be straight 3 also.

I have recently begun to seriously study/listen to Rubinstein's playing of the mazurkas. And trying to imitate him the best I can - something that is impossible to get perfected, but it has helped me, anyway.

But doesn't Zimerman look a lot like Chopin! I'm thinking body-double with that earlier video.

_________________"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." ~ Frederic Chopin

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